Black Forest Cupcakes

Holy cupcakes batman! I had two different kinds of birthday cupcakes to make for today. The first was for the daughter of a friend who absolutely loves chocolate and peanut butter (my kinda girl). She also loves soccer so I threw in a few little soccer balls for decoration. How cute are these?

The soccer balls are cute but I would definitely choose the cupcake with crumbled peanut butter cups on top (nom nom nom). These cupcakes have a big peanut butter ball baked in the middle. If you want the recipe, click here (you know you want to).

I also wanted to make some cupcakes for my Dad’s birthday this weekend. Now, I know what you are thinking… leopard print cupcake liners? Bah! I couldn’t find the plain white liners I bought and I was in a bit of a crunch for time. Leopard print was all I had left. No worries… who looks at the liner anyways? I’ll bet he won’t even notice hehe.

My Dad requested black forest cupcakes for his birthday treat. I found a really great recipe on Annie’s Eats but modified it slightly to use up some of the ingredients I had on hand. Also, Annie’s recipe calls for frozen cherries and I could not find these anywhere. Canned cherry pie filling was going to have to do. My favourite thing about this recipe is the icing. Its light, its fluffy, it pipes like an absolute dream. Make some. Right now. Its delicious.

1 can cherry pie filling (if you want to make homemade filling and can find frozen cherries, check out the recipe here)

12 fresh cherries (with stems)

1/4 cup chocolate shavings

Icing Ingredients:

1½ cups heavy cream, chilled

6 tbsp. confectioners’ sugar, sifted

1 tsp. vanilla extract

Directions:

To make the cake batter, combine the flour, cocoa powder and baking soda in a medium bowl; whisk together and set aside.

In a liquid measuring cup, stir together the sour cream, milk and vanilla extract. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the butter and sugar, and beat on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.

Beat in the eggs one at a time, scraping down the bowl as needed. With the mixer on low speed, alternately add the dry ingredients and the sour cream mixture, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients. Mix just until incorporated.

Fill the 24 cupcake liners evenly. Bake for 18-22 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow to cool in the pan for 5-10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

To Make the Icing:

Add the heavy cream to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Start beating on medium-low speed, slowly increasing as the cream begins to thicken up to medium-high speed.

While the cream is being whipped, gradually add in the confectioners’ sugar a spoonful at a time. Whip the cream until stiff peaks form. Fold in the vanilla extract.

To Assemble the Cupcakes:

Once the cupcakes have cooled completely, cut a hole in each cupcake using either the cone method or a cupcake corer. If you don’t know what the “cone method” is, check out this step by step tutorial by Baking Bites. If you don’t have a cupcake corer… BUY ONE! They are AWESOME!

Fill each cupcake hole with cherry pie filling. If you want, you can add a small piece of cored cupcake as a topper but I just iced directly over the filling.

I used a large round tip from Wilton to ice these bad boys and then garnished them with chocolate shavings and fresh cherries.

These cupcakes will keep for a day or two in the fridge but try to eat them quickly for maximum freshness (not that fast consumption will be a problem or anything).

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One thought on “Black Forest Cupcakes”

Black forest cupcakes!! Why haven’t I thought of this! Its good to see people getting creative with cupcakes and baking. It looks like you might love cake as much as we do! We’re asking people to submit their dream British-inspired cupcake flavors atm. If u have the time, pls enter here: http://wp.me/p1FPR6-jH, or on twitter @TeaAndSympathy… Thanks!x

About Me

rachel@theblissfulbakker.com

Cooking is most definitely one of my passions. Pasta, soup, cakes, muffins, you name it! I love to try new recipes, and I also really enjoy coming up with new ideas of my own. Why the “blissful bakker” you ask? Bakker is my last name and means “baker” in Dutch. As for the word blissful, that’s how I feel when I’m in the kitchen, usually with a glass of red wine in one hand and a cook book in the other.

I currently live in Kingston, Ontario with my husband and my little dog Darby. Both are very eager taste testers when it comes to my baking endeavors. I hope you enjoy my recipes and photos. Please feel free to comment or send me a quick email if you have any questions!